Welcome to a series of stories involving the other Canadian NHL teams. The theory is that readers of The Athletic already know the teams that they support reasonably well and don’t need more blathering about that. So we’re going to focus on the opposition. Up next, the Boston Bruins, who open against the Ottawa Senators tonight.

For all the disappointment in Toronto about the Maple Leafs losing to the Blue Jackets on the last day of the season and earning a matchup with Washington, the Senators should have been pretty disappointed as well. Despite the Senators going 4-0 against the Bruins this year (and 10-3-0 over the past three years), the bookies really prefer Boston. I think they're right.

5-on-5

The only reason that the Senators were close to the Bruins at 5-on-5 this year (Boston had a 49.1 per cent GF%; Ottawa was at 48.9 per cent) was the difference in goaltending between the two teams. The Senators got a .926 save percentage at 5-on-5;...

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